I suppose that every music lover has mixed feelings about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and its annual induction of of five musical artists/bands for a version of pop culture immortality. The Hall can’t include all of our favorites (or even all the critics’ darlings), so some must be left out in the cold.
So, what’s your favorite omission?
For me, it’s XTC, hands down. They’ve been releasing music since 1977’s White Music (I’m not counting their 1974 amateurish incarnation as “Star Park”) and so became eligible last year.
Humbly submitted to the court: a listing of original (non-compilation, non-demo) albums with salient tracks:
White Music (1977): “Statue of Liberty,” “This is Pop,” punk cover of “All Along the Watchtower”.
Go 2 (1978): “Meccanic Dancing (Oh We Go!),” “Battery Brides,” “The Rhythm”.
Drums & Wires (1979): “Making Plans for Nigel,” “Day In Day Out,” “Life Begins At the Hop,” “Real By Reel”.
Black Sea (1980): “Respectable Street,” “Generals and Majors,” “Living Through Another Cuba,” “No Language In Our Lungs,” “Burning With Optimism’s Flames”.
English Settlement (1982): “Senses Working Overtime,” “Jason and the Argonauts,” “No Thugs In Our House,” “Yacht Dance,” “It’s Nearly Africa,” “English Roundabout”.
Mummer (1983): “Wonderland,” “Love On a Farmboy’s Wages,” “Great Fire,” “Toys,” “Ladybird,” “In Loving Memory of a Name”.
The Big Express (1984): “Wake Up,” “All You Pretty Girls,” “Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her” (this inspired the name of a Japanese pop group, BTW), “The Everyday Story of Smalltown,” “I Bought Myself a Liarbird”.
Skylarking (1986): “Summer’s Cauldron,” “Grass,” “The Meeting Place,” “That’s Really Super, Supergirl,” “Ballet for a Rainy Day,” “1000 Umbrellas,” “Season Cycle,” “Earn Enough For Us,” “Big Day,” “Dear God,”…
Recording as “The Dukes of Stratosphear” (1986-87)(jokingly, as a supposedly rediscovered 60’s psychedelic band): “25 O’Clock,” “What In the World?,” “Vanishing Girl,” “Have You Seen Jackie?,” “You’re a Good Man Albert Brown (Curse You Red Barrel),” “Collideascope,” “You’re My Drug,” “Brainiac’s Daughter,” “The Affiliated,” “Pale and Precious”.
Oranges and Lemons (1989): “Garden of Earthly Delights,” “The Mayor of Simpleton,” “King for a Day,” “The Loving,” “One of the Millions,” “Scarecrow People,” “Across This Antheap,” “Pink Thing,” “Chalkhills and Children”.
Nonsuch (1992): “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead,” “Dear Madam Barnum,” “Humble Daisy,” “The Disappointed,” “Then She Appeared,” “Wrapped In Grey,” “The Ugly Underneath,” “Bungalow,” “Books are Burning”.
Apple Venus, Vol. 1 (1999): “River of Orchids,” “I’d Like That,” “Easter Theatre,” “Knights In Shining Karma,” “Fruit Nut,” “I Can’t Own Her,” “Harvest Festival”.
Wasp Star [Apple Venus Vol. 2] (2000): “Playground,” “Stupidly Happy,” “You and the Clouds Will Still Be Beautiful,” “Church of Women,” “The Wheel and the Maypole”.
The defense rests.
